1. Blogger So Dear: This was an interesting discussion on Wake Forest basketball halfway through conference play. It’s long but informative, and I found the differing opinions on Jeff Bzdelik particularly interesting. While most Demon Deacon fans seem to want Bzdelik gone as soon as possible, the consensus here appears to be that he deserves one more year. With a strong class coming in next season, giving him another year definitely makes sense. However, the points remain that his team has struggled the past two years with any offensive consistency. Unlike Steve Donahue (whose lukewarm seat should only be attributed to recruiting), Bzdelik’s coaching strategy is hard to pick out. Maybe it’s a personnel issue, but he may be a little over his head too.
2. Hampton Roads Pilot: Doug Doughty addresses Mike Scott‘s legacy at Virginia. Scott should be the favorite for ACC player of the year right now (the prohibitive favorite if you ask me), though many seem to think someone from North Carolina will take the honor by year’s end. Even then, barring an epic collapse, Scott should make the first team All-Conference. No Virginia big man since Ralph Sampson in the early ’80s can say that. Only two Virginia players in history have ever won ACC player of the year. Certainly, he’s having the best season since at least when Sean Singletary left Charlottesville.
3. Roanoke Times: When people think of Austin Rivers, they immediately think Doc Rivers‘ son. It’s the curse of having a famous parent in the same field. There’s also an assumption that goes with it that Rivers is good because his father is an NBA coach. Mark Berman’s interview with the Duke freshman guard reminded me that Doc Rivers was away from home more often than not. The NBA season is long and all over the place. His presence may have instilled a respect for the game of basketball, but it did not guarantee his son’s success. Rivers is coming off his best game of the season against Virginia Tech. He finished with 18 points (on 10 shots), a team-leading five assists and four rebounds. He didn’t force things on offense and played very good defense throughout despite being consistently matched up with taller, more experienced players. It may be time to change his narrative yet again.
4. Raleigh News & Observer: Bad news for Harrison Barnes and North Carolina. The sophomore star has a sprained ankle. I’d be surprised if he doesn’t play Saturday at Maryland (Roy Williams tends to overestimate injuries). That said, with Duke looming I wouldn’t be surprised to see him get limited minutes.
5. ESPN: This post is a few days old, but it’s become surprisingly relevant. Chief of officials John Adams thinks there should be more technical fouls. Since his memo dropped four days ago, I’ve seen at least four or five guys T’d up (Mark Turgeon was ejected against Miami). I’m all for enforcing the technical rules more consistently (and harshly if that keeps games from getting out of hand); however, let’s remember that technical fouls count for two free throws and a personal foul. If you’re going to call more, give players six pesrsonal fouls. No one wants to see someone sit for a single taunt. Also I’d be in favor of moving to one free throw instead of the requisite two. As an example, check out the highlights from Duke’s win over Virginia Tech, as Andre Dawkins gets a technical for taunting (though it looked like he just jogged back on defense).
   

1. Huffington Post: Dave Ungrady found out that one of CJ Leslie‘s role models is Maryland’s tragic hero, Len Bias. While Leslie is definitely thinner than Bias, their games do have a little resemblance. Leslie has a long way to go before claiming a spot with the all-time ACC great, but his developing jumper and tremendous athleticism definitely evoke some memories of Bias’ play. Leslie’s parents also used Bias’ story to teach him a valuable lesson about the dangers of drugs — especially for star athletes.
2. Miami Herald: First year ACC coaches Jim Larranaga and Mark Turgeon have a history. Back when Turgeon was the coach of Wichita State and Larranaga was the coach of George Mason, they faced off three times in two seasons. George Mason took the first two meetings, a BracketBuster matchup and again in the Sweet Sixteen (en route to the school’s Final Four appearance). But Turgeon’s Shockers had the last laugh, beating the Patriots the night they hung the Final Four banner the next season. Hopefully, this history will raise the stakes on this week’s game at Miami.
3. Hampton Roads Daily Press: It’s becoming a bit of a broken record with this Virginia team. Every game is low-scoring, and every game is close. Critics point to Virginia Tech’s upset over the Cavaliers as proof that the team’s system creates “too close for comfort” games night in and night out. Yet again on Tuesday, Virginia eked out a win over a lesser ACC opponent, Clemson, on the back of a great shooting night. Mike Scott and Joe Harris won the Cavaliers the game, going 15-20 from the field for 39 points. The game was a perfect advertisement for Scott’s incredible season, as he finished with 10 rebounds in addition to the nearly 20 points. That said, despite the strong veteran performances, Clemson had a chance to tie the game with under a minute to play, down three with the ball. Even though Virginia survived, that’s the danger of low-possession basketball. Late-game runs can totally erase a very strong performance.
4. Sports Illustrated: Florida State was in trouble after a 20-point beat-down to Clemson. Even I jumped off its bandwagon. Between a lackluster conference opener and only managing 10 points in the first half against Princeton (who is currently 1-2 in the Ivy League), it looked like the Seminoles were totally out of it.  But the team finally came together. A major reason is that Bernard James stepped up and got everyone on the same page. Regardless of a change of attitude, the Seminoles’ resurgence has been incredible. They’ve stopped turning the ball over and are one of the top shooting teams in the ACC. It’s likely that those two stats may regress a little bit, but I still expect Leonard Hamilton’s team will be here to stay.
5. Lost Lettermen: Take a look at the top 10 uniforms (and worst) in college basketball. Maryland checks in as the worst uniforms in the conference (and second worst in the country), though I think there’s a little grief being piled on from the team’s atrocious football digs. Boston College also earns a spot in the bottom 10 thanks to too large of lettering and a clash in styles. Not surprisingly, Duke checks in to the ‘good’ top 10 (its home whites are classic) and North Carolina sits at the very top of the list.

I. Renko is a DC-based correspondent for Rush the Court.  You can follow him on twitter @IRenkoHoops.

Leave it to Duke to add a little bitterness to an otherwise sweet night for Maryland basketball.  During the pre-game ceremony presenting the newly-christened “Gary Williams Court,” the legendary coach acknowledged the students and fans in the building who “helped us win a lot of games,” before reminding them that they had  “a great chance to do that again tonight.”  And for three-quarters of the game, they nearly did just that.  But an 11-1 run midway through the second half propelled Duke to victory.  RTC was in the building, and here’s what we saw as the keys to the game:

Plumlee Was the Difference in College Park Wednesday Night (US Presswire/M. Stringer)

• Maryland’s Decision to Stay Home — Not literally, of course, as the College Park crowd gave the Terps a nice boost.  Although it’s obvious from the box score that Mason Plumlee’s season-high 23 points led Duke to victory, what is less obvious from the raw stats is that Maryland essentially invited Duke to beat them this way.  Mark Turgeon acknowledged that the game plan was to defend the post one-on-one rather than double off of the perimeter:  “Yeah, we could’ve doubled them and let ‘em shoot threes.  But that was what we went with.”  That was a reasonable approach given Duke’s 40% three-point shooting percentage.  There’s not a single starter who you can comfortably leave to double MP2 — each of the other four shoots at least 37% from three-point range.  But as the game went on, and Plumlee, along with  his older brother and frontcourt mate Ryan Kelly, continued to dominate inside, a tactical change was probably warranted.  Duke’s guards had a miserable shooting night, and it wasn’t only because Maryland wasn’t sagging off the perimeter.  They were missing quality looks as well.  Under those circumstances, it was certainly worth trying to harass Plumlee inside with multiple bodies.

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Evan Jacoby is an RTC contributor and correspondent. You can find him @evanjacoby on Twitter. See bottom of the post for the Official RTC Star System.

There are no Top 25 matchups or truly ‘great’ games on tonight’s schedule, but it is another packed Wednesday of important conference battles so there will be plenty of action worth monitoring.

Villanova at Louisville – 7:00 PM ET on ESPN (***)

Peyton Siva Looks to Get Louisville Back on Track Tonight Against Another Top Point Guard (Getty Images/A. Lyons)

• In what would have been billed as a big-time matchup at the beginning of the season, this game now features two unranked teams (Louisville is still #25 in one poll) with a combined 6-9 record in the Big East. But this will still be a fun game to watch, and the away team is playing its best basketball of the season. Nova has won two straight games and lost by only four points at Cincinnati in the game before, as Maalik Wayns has finally taken his game to the next level. His averages over the past three games are an insane 30.7 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 5.3 assists per game. He’s also gone 30-33 from the free throw line in that stretch. He’s second in the conference in scoring (18.7 PPG) and leads the Big East in free throws made. Nova needs other players to be strong with the ball against Louisville’s high-pressure defense, as the Wildcats average a terrible 17 turnovers in conference games, worst in the Big East. If Jay Wright’s team can take care of the ball and get to the rim instead of settling for outside shots, they have a chance in this game. Jayvaughn Pinkston will play a key role as an emerging threat (18 points, 11.5 rebounds in his last two) at the forward position that can attack the rim.
• If Louisville wants to get back into consideration as a ranked team, they must win this game at home. The Cardinals continue to deal with injuries but have all of their key cogs healthy in this one, as leading-scorer Kyle Kuric (13.4 PPG) returned from an ankle injury to score 21 points against Pittsburgh in their last game. Louisville has the advantage on the wings with Kuric, Russ Smith (12.5 PPG), and Chris Smith (10.1 PPG) and they will try to swarm Villanova defensively, who only has one true ballhandler in its lineup. Peyton Siva and Gorgui Dieng have tough matchups with Maalik Wayns and Mouphtaou Yarou, respectively, that are worth watching to see who has the edge on the perimeter and in the paint. Overall, Louisville’s depth and defensive pressure should prove too much for the Wildcats.
• Louisville is a nine-point favorite at home in the KFC Yum! Center and cannot lose this game if it wants to be taken seriously in the Big East. The 10-10 Wildcats come in with some confidence and will look to play the role of spoiler as Wayns tries to prove he’s the best point guard in the conference. Expect the Cardinals to wear out Villlanova in the second half and come out with the win.

#8 Duke at Maryland- 9:00 PM ET on ESPN (***)

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1. Baltimore Sports Report: Patrick Guthrie offers his three suggestions for Mark Turgeon going forward. First, play Mychal Parker more. Parker was Gary Williams’ prized recruit coming into last year, but never really found a spot in the line-up. This year, he’s shown sparks of greatness and been more effective than freshman Nick Faust in particular. Second, get the ball to James Padgett. You never would’ve heard anyone say those words last season, but this year Padgett has shown flashes of developing a little like Richard Howell did over the last season for NC State. Finally, Guthrie asks Turgeon to pump the brakes on Alex Len. Here I’m a little more wary, as Len could be a crucial building block going forward. And his major “needs work area” seems to be adjusting to the physicality and athleticism of ACC play.
2. Bright House Sports Network: Newly elected baseball Hall of Famer Barry Larkin sat down with Tiffany Greene to talk about his son at Miami. Shane Larkin has served the invaluable role of spark plug (think very poor man’s Nate Robinson) off the bench this year. Most people expected him to see very limited playing time because of Miami’s depth in the backcourt, but his strong play seems to earn him more and more minutes.
3. Washington Post: Dorian Finney-Smith came to Blacksburg as the most touted recruit of Seth Greenberg’s tenure. He started the season off on fire, dominating the Hokies early opponents with double-doubles. The majority of his work was on the glass, but he was a capable scorer too. But the rigors of conference play have undermined Finney-Smith’s play. Having to guard Harrison Barnes certainly didn’t help, but based on all of Greenberg’s praise I expect Finney-Smith to end up just fine.
4. Washington Post: Virginia‘s newest addition, Teven Jones, said the transition to college wasn’t too bad. Jones reclassified to join the Cavaliers this month. He won’t play (except on the scout team), but the time should give him the chance to learn Tony Bennett’s offensive system as well as get in some valuable academic credits. Luckily, Jones’ postgraduate school, Fishburne Military School, employed the pack-line defense. Probably the most interesting part of the article was Steve Yanda’s point about midyear classification becoming more popular in football (it basically gives you extra practice time), but not as much in basketball because it would take recruits away from their high school coaches midseason.
5. Morganton News Herald: Roy Waters’ “Birth of ACC Hoops” is back for its third installment. This one is a little more local in taste, but I think it’s a good reminder of how regional sports used to be. To be fair, Roy Williams was born and raised in North Carolina. But none of the other conference coaches hail from their schools’ respective states (though, one interesting potential trivia nugget is both Brian Gregory and Jeff Bzdelik are from Mount Prospect, Illinois).

Being a big man is tough. Your job is to set screens, battle for position, and when you get it, hopefully your guards will get you the ball so that you have a chance to score. Failing that, you can always hope to grab an offensive rebound from a missed shot for a putback. Good coaches of course get their big men to do more complicated things than that, but boiled down to the bare essentials: This is the life of a forward or center.

If you have a big man who is skilled on offense, you want him to get as many touches of the ball as possible to give him plenty of chances to score. In general, this is the easiest way to score in college basketball (provided you have a skilled offensive big man). For some reason, Maryland has decided to ignore this principle. The Terrapin forwards and centers take a good number of shots, but it’s mostly due to their own skill at getting offensive rebounds. Outside of that facet of the game, the Terrapin big men barely get a chance to score. At least, that’s what my eyes kept telling me after watching Maryland play against Temple and Florida State. So I decided to go to the numbers and check.

Poor Maryland Bigs

Sure enough, outside of super role-player Miles Plumlee, the main three Terps in the frontcourt rotation have fewer field goal attempts per game than any of the other talented rebounding forwards in the ACC once offensive rebounds per game are subtracted. This is odd, because though Maryland has the near-magical scoring power of Terrell Stoglin, this is a team that often has trouble on offense. While Sean Mosely is a very capable offensive player, Pe’Shon Howard and Nick Faust have not provided any kind of offensive efficiency from the guard position, posting offensive efficiency ratings of 80.0 and 83.9, respectively. That’s ugly. Meanwhile, touch-starved James Padgett, Ashton Pankey, and Alex Len are posting offensive efficiency ratings of 108.4, 113.4, and 96.5, respectively. Padgett and Pankey’s ratings are easily the second and third best on the team after Stoglin, and Len’s lower rating (caused by turnovers) hides the fact that he leads the team in true shooting percentage with an incredibly solid 63.0% mark.

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1. BC Interruption: Let’s get started with the most important story of the weekend. Boston College has an ACC winning streak! I’m not sure whether this says that the Eagles are better than I expected (probably true), or that Virginia Tech and Clemson are much worse than I originally thought (also likely), but it sure does make ACC play more interesting. Oh, and by the way, Virginia Tech fans don’t need to worry about the bubble this year. Just for those keeping score at home the Hokies already lost to Wake Forest, Boston College and Florida State; the bad news is they play North Carolina, at Virginia, at Maryland and against Duke for the next four conference games. Seriously, that’s a very possible 0-7 start to conference play (though I’d put the over/under at one). Not good. But congratulations to the Eagles, who are a remarkable 2-1.
2. Searching For Billy Edelin: The other conference shake-up of the weekend came out of Tallahassee, where the Seminoles took the Tar Heels behind a woodshed and clubbed them for two hours to the tune of a 90-57 final score. At the heart of the Florida State offense was an unconscious Deividas Dulkys. Dulkys is a better shooter than people give him credit for (truthfully, I just assumed he couldn’t shoot because he’s on Florida State). The Lithuanian is actually one of the better shooters in the conference, and proved it with an 8-10 performance from the three-point line. He may not do it again, but Florida State fans will remember Dulkys’ career performance for a long time.
3. Raleigh News & Observer: Speaking of the beatdown, the other story (or diversion, in my opinion) from Tallahassee was Roy Williams taking his players off the floor before the end of the game to avoid potential injuries during the court rushing. Leonard Hamilton says it was his idea. That left five walk-ons to face the masses of Seminole faithful streaming onto the court solo. Obviously the move drew a lot of criticism. It also drew this awesome photoshop.
   
4.  Washington Post: Maryland‘s poor attendance has been documented this year. The same is true of the athletic department’s financial woes. Mark Turgeon is going to be a huge part of trying to overcome the department’s huge deficit over the next few years ($2.8 million this year alone). If he wins, people will come. It’s no coincidence that the basketball team’s revenue has declined since 2006. The school is also investigating outfitting the Comcast Center for concerts or adding ad ribbons between the upper and lower decks. I still think the most important thing is to start winning games. If Turgeon gets this program back in the upper echelon of the conference, the team should make much more money.
5. Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Speaking of guys who should be getting more attention, Mfon Udofia is playing much better in Georgia Tech’s recent games. Glenn Rice, Jr., gets most of the press because he is a better scorer and has name recognition, but Udofia may be more important. His current role is to “just be the coach on the floor, pretty much.” He’ll need to be more consistent if the Yellow Jackets want to make a run at finishing somewhere in the middle of the conference.

1. Sports Illustrated: Bubble Watch is back! The bad news is that the ACC only has three teams that are locks or should be in. The good news is there are five more still in the mix (aka teams that have an RPI under 100). The worse news is that Miami and Virginia Tech are now 0-2 to start conference play, leaving NC State, Florida State and Wake Forest to pick up the slack. In a year of middling power conferences the ACC should get four teams invited.
2. Tomahawk Nation: Speaking of the Seminoles, Leonard Hamilton’s team had a good old-fashioned block party against Virginia Tech last night. They blocked 25.4% of the Hokies’ shots (15-of-59 field goal attempts were blocked). Luckily, Michael Rogner pointed this out twice on Twitter because I totally glossed over it the first time. That’s an outrageous number. Oh, and Bernard James was a beast, going for 18 points and 15 rebounds (of which nine were offensive). The performance earned the Seminoles a road win for their efforts.
3. Washington Times: Maryland is much better with Alex Len in the lineup, but Mark Turgeon’s squad still has a long way to go. Specifically, the team’s transition defense was horrendous at the RBC Center on Sunday, but NC State’s athletic frontcourt exacerbated the problem, as Mark Gottfried rotated DeShawn Painter and Richard Howell to go against a gassed Len.
4. Raleigh News & Observer: Speaking of NC State, the Wolfpack are the only ACC team with five players averaging double figures for the season. This balance means there are several players who can step up on any given night. The problem is the team’s talent drops off fairly quickly after the top six.
5. Durham Herald Sun: Dexter Strickland is the newest Tar Heel to have to deal with fans calling for other players to start ahead of him. Last year it was Larry Drew II, as fans and the media called for Roy Williams to start Kendall Marshall instead. I was one of them. This year, I’ll stick with the coach. It’s true that Reggie Bullock and PJ Hairston have been terrific and add an invaluable long-range threat to the offense. But I think Strickland helps the team chemistry where Drew clearly hurt it last season. The good news for Tar Heel fans is I expect Strickland to keep helping team chemistry regardless of whether he starts or comes off the bench.

1. Grantland: It’s no secret that North Carolina and Duke are the top two squads in the ACC. But can Tony Bennett establish Virginia as their perennial challenger in the wake of Gary Williams’ departure? Shane Ryan breaks down Bennett’s pack-line defense, which has been the team’s key to success this season. We’ve talked about it a little before, but the screen-shots are illustrating. There’s never more than one player outside of the three-point line, which keeps more athletic teams from taking advantage of dribble penetration and forces them to beat the Cavaliers from deep.
2. Philadelphia Daily News: Dick Jerardi does a good job describing Mike Krzyzewski‘s career in brief and why he thinks there won’t be anyone else like him. I’d only add that the game has changed significantly since the start of the 1980s, which makes both Coach K’s success impressive and the likelihood of another coach like him even slimmer. He also briefly previewed Duke’s eventual opponent last night (who ended up winning), Temple.
3. Baltimore Sun: Don Markus checks in on Maryland and whether its record is a “true indicator” of the team’s current level. I think it is, but you have to remember the Terps’ opponents too. Mark Turgeon implied that he thought their record was generous. In the end Markus concludes that the Terrapins will be erratic, blowing out opponents or losing by 30 points to similar caliber ones because of their up-tempo pace and questionable shooting.
4. Tallahassee Democrat: Florida State knows it needs to get its act together if it’s going to make the NCAA Tournament. Leonard Hamilton isn’t as concerned with the wins and losses as his team’s performance. Basically, the biggest issue is (like most years) the Seminoles can’t score consistently from anywhere. But they whipped up on Auburn last night to tune up for conference play.
5. Baltimore Sports Report: The Baltimore Sports Report takes a look at the missing pieces of some conference teams. To be short (in my opinion): North Carolina needs a shooter; Duke needs a point guard; Virginia needs a shot-creator in the backcourt; Virginia Tech needs an inside presence; NC State needs consistency; Florida State needs scoring; Clemson needs a second option who can take over the game; Georgia Tech needs a go-to guy; Maryland needs significant contributors aside from Terrell Stoglin; Wake Forest needs rebounding; Miami needs a defense; Boston College needs everything.

1. Duke Basketball Report: Florida State is off to a rough start, and the triple-overtime loss to Princeton fit right into the Seminoles’ disappointing non-conference season. But how rare is a 3OT game? Apparently, very rare. Barry Jacobs has a very interesting look at all games that went to three overtimes or more. NC State has the most quadruple-overtime games (two), but Georgia Tech takes the day because of its undefeated record in triple-overtime games.
2. Wilmington Star News: Brett Friedlander takes a look at some of the unknowns going into conference play. I think the biggest question will be how Virginia will perform against more familiar (and talented) teams. Now, whether NC State can make the Big Dance, I’m not nearly as optimistic. Sure, it’s still possible, but barring a Texas resurgence the Wolfpack are in serious trouble as far as quality wins are concerned.
3. Washington Post: An underreported aspect of Maryland’s turnaround has been Terrell Stoglin‘s defense. The sophomore scoring machine didn’t start when Mark Turgeon wanted to send a message about Stoglin’s effort on the defensive end of the floor, and apparently, the move worked. Now, the Maryland seven-game winning streak is pretty difficult to put a finger on because of the mediocre quality of opponents it has played the last few weeks, but winning games is winning games.
4. Winston-Salem Journal: NC State’s Lorenzo Brown, CJ Leslie and DeShawn Painter have all gotten praise at various times for their performances this season. One guy a little more under the radar is Richard Howell, who is absolutely dominating the glass for the Wolfpack this season. Howell pulled down 12 or more rebounds for the fourth consecutive time over the weekend against Western Carolina. It’s that kind of unnoticed play that will give Mark Gottfried’s team the grit to succeed in the conference schedule.
5. Carolina March: Here’s an interesting idea from Carolina March: piggy-back on bowl games with basketball games the night before. Miami, Georgia Tech, Maryland and three North Carolina schools all have bowl games very close to their campuses. Why not have a basketball game that tries to capitalize on the excitement surrounding their respective bowl games? It’s worth a thought, especially for Georgia Tech and Miami, which have both really struggled filling the stands consistently.

EXTRA: ACC Digital Network Video of the Day: Analyst (and North Carolina alumnus) JR Reid looks at shot-blocking and specifically John Henson.